Even though Vivian had completed the nightgown that day in the garden, she still didn't approach Kyrie about it until a few more days had passed. Every time she saw Kyrie and tried to speak to her for any reason that wasn't strictly utilitarian, she couldn't help the waves of hurt and anger that coursed through her. As the days passed by though, a new emotion was joining those: guilt.
Kyrie wasn't getting any better after that first day that Vivian had seen her crying, in fact she was getting progressively worse. Vivian couldn't keep holding her silence like this anymore, not when it was doing nothing but hurting the both of them.
So while they washed dishes in the kitchen that evening, Vivian finally spoke up.
"Kyrie, don't go to Isaac tonight before stopping by our room first."
It was the first thing Vivian had said to her for the past few days that wasn't strictly work related.
The sheer shock of it almost made Kyrie drop the dish that she was cleaning, and she looked over towards Vivian with a soft intake of breath. Had she actually heard correctly? Had Vivian really asked her to talk? ... Was she angry? Kyrie really couldn't tell from Vivian's expression, her fellow was keeping her face perfectly neutral as she dried the dishes Kyrie supplied her with. She didn't realize that she was holding her breath as she anxiously watched Vivian for some kind of confirmation, so when Vivian turned to lock eyes with her that breath came out in one big rush. She hadn't just imagined Vivian speaking! She had indeed spoken to her! Though, Kyrie felt equally tongue-tied now that she was breathing again.
Vivian's silence for the past few days had been exactly one of the things that Kyrie had been dreading by revealing all this to her. After the first day, Kyrie's tears had gotten worse, leaving her face red and blotchy from the deluge that came to her every so often. She had agonized over whether she should say something to Vivian, whether she should ask if she knew about... the affair yet. But she'd been stayed by her own uncertainty: what if Vivian hadn't actually been told about it? Or what if bringing it up to Vivian instead of waiting for her to come to Kyrie would actually make things worse? It was thoughts like these that left Kyrie simply giving Vivian forlorn looks every so often, looks that Vivian never acknowledged even if she did notice then.
The lady, thankfully, hadn't said anything about how miserable Kyrie was: she hadn't even really acknowledged anything about it aside from looking at Kyrie a little bit longer than usual. Dessi hadn't directly tried to confront her about it, but she had been trying to slip her nice snacks or her favorite things in with things. Isaac though... That was another story. When he had first seen just how awful Kyrie looked he'd immediately become concerned, doing his best to try and comfort her. She'd only told him that she'd had a fight with Vivian, and even though what to do about him was kind of lumped into her misery about Vivian, she had at least still been able to find peace in his arms. It wasn't as effective as it usually was, but peace it still was. Kyrie just couldn't bear the thought of losing him, and as he held she had clung to him all the more thanks to the knowledge that she would soon have to tell him too. She wanted to cling to Vivian as well, if she was being honest: she missed their closeness, she missed it so much...
But now Vivian had finally spoken to her again! And almost completely normally too!
Kyrie could feel tears welling up in her eyes: not tears of sadness though, tears of happiness. Some words were so much better than no words at all, and even though what Vivian said was no real indication that she was ok again, it was an indication that she was willing to let Kyrie into her life again. Or maybe this was where she was going to tell Kyrie off forever, but Kyrie was going to do everything in her power to make sure that didn't happen! She wracked her brain for what to say in response to Vivian's comment, and in the end Kyrie chose to say as little as possible for fear that saying more might somehow sour Vivian's mood towards her.
"O-ok."
The kitchen sunk back into silence, and Dessi quietly narrowed her eyes at the two young women from her tasks across the room. The older woman chose not to break the silence, but she did continue to quietly watch the other two women as if trying to glean whether she needed to step in. Eventually though, Kyrie and Vivian finished up the dishes and Vivian turned to Dessi.
"Alright, we're done here. We'll head back first."
Dessi nodded and simply waved them off to which Vivian strode out of the room with Kyrie nervously trailing behind her.
The silence between the two women grew heavy as they walked through the halls, and Kyrie's hands clenched some of the loose fabric of her dress while her teeth bit at the inside of her lip. It was raw at this point from all the abuse Kyrie had been giving it since the day Renard had told Kyrie of his intentions. Every time she had been in Vivian's presence, her throat clogged with unspoken words: words that she wanted to say, that she wanted to try to use to explain herself, but that she just couldn't get to emerge. Even though she'd already ruined their friendship, what if her words somehow made it even worse?
Struggling to blink back the tears, Kyrie silently followed Vivian into their bedroom, sitting down on her own bed while Vivian lit some of the candles around before reaching into her chest. Honestly Kyrie wasn't really looking at Vivian, for fear that the older girl would snap at her for it, but she did help by lighting the candles that were near her. She finished much sooner than Vivian did and promptly turned her eyes down to her lap now. As a result, she was caught completely by surprise when something blue was practically thrown on her legs.
Jumping from the sudden action, Kyrie's eyes widened as she stared at the blue mess of fabric before turning those eyes up towards Vivian.
"I told you I would make you something for your own evenings and I did."
There was a tightness to Vivian's voice as she said this, but whether it was bridled anger or suppressed tears Kyrie really couldn't say. Once again looking between the nightgown in her lap and Vivian, Kyrie reached out towards the aqua-colored pieces very slowly, as if disbelieving that they were really there. As her hand touched the smooth fabric, she became convinced that this wasn't just some sort of dream and Kyrie turned to look up at Vivian, complete shock on her face. This hadn't been at all what she was expecting. What did this even mean, that Vivian had completed such a scandalous outfit for her after learning about what she'd done with Renard?
"V-Vivian... I don't... I don't know what to say."
Kyrie's words came out choked with emotion, and as a result it took much longer for her to say such a simple sentence. Here Vivian's own eyes teared up as she finally bristled with emotion, though certainly not a positive one.
"How about I'm sorry, Vivian, for having sex with the love of your life?!"
Kyrie's throat constricted from these words, and the tears that had been threatening to fall finally spilled down her cheeks. This set Vivian off as well, so that one woman was crying with tears fueled by rage and betrayal while the other was crying from guilt and self-loathing.
"I am, I am sorry Vivian."
"Not sorry enough to stop though, are you?!"
The only response Kyrie was able to give to that was one of her hands moving up to cover her mouth as her eyes clenched shut. She was sorry, she felt so sorry for having slept with Renard and yet at the same time, if she was to stop now Kyrie couldn't shake the sense that she'd feel like something was missing from her life. Renard wasn't an outlet for her love, but he was an outlet for her creativity and she valued that more than she could really express. Kyrie couldn't even honestly say that she wished he'd never caught her that first time anymore: so much more had come from that first encounter in the garden than she ever would've expected. She felt guilty because she hated hurting Vivian, but she also knew that the easy fix to Vivian's hurt wasn't something that she personally wanted to do.
Struggling to try and put this into words, Kyrie's voice came out muffled, both by her hand and the crying, but words she did manage to form.
"It's not... It's not that easy... I don't want to hurt you, I never wanted to hurt you, but I can't deny how I feel."
"And how do you feel?"
Vivian's voice broke a little from these words, mostly because her anger was starting to give way to the sadness of inevitability. She'd known going into this that Kyrie and Renard weren't likely to be able to just stop whatever they had, yet she had still hoped that would be an option.
There was only silence from Kyrie in response to this question, likely because she was having trouble formulating the words to express herself. Still, Vivian wasn't here to listen to Kyrie cry, and her anger flared a little. She wanted answers! Not tears!
"Well?!"
Kyrie flinched a little to be the target of Vivian's ire, and even though she hadn't quite found the words she felt like continuing to hold her silence would make things worse than a poorly formed sentence.
"I... I feel like being with Renard is somehow... Liberating. T-that's not to say that Isaac is stifling, just... I don't know... Renard's always been able to get me to push myself, to explore things that I hadn't known existed..."
It was Vivian's turn to lapse into silence now. She found it liberating? What did that even mean? Trying to think about her own time with Renard, she would never think to call it particularly liberating. Was it that Renard was more adventurous in his endeavors with Kyrie? Was Isaac not particularly satisfying? … No... If that was the case then Kyrie wouldn't still love him so much. Something had to be radically different between Kyrie and Renard's interactions in comparison to her own interactions with Renard, and she just couldn't picture it at all. There was only so much that could be done during sex, wasn't there? But with an explanation like Kyrie was giving, why did sex even need to be involved? That was something that could be done by a friend just as well as a lover!
"Why though, why does any of that have to involve sex?"
"I... I don't know."
Kyrie's response was soft as she responded to this question, and here Vivian just sunk down onto her own bed, her anger seemingly spent.
"You don't know..."
Vivian's voice was equally soft as she echoed the words back, and her eyes turned down to look at the floor in utter despair.
"You've done the worst thing you could possibly do to me and you don't even know why."
Vivian's voice sounded empty as she said this, and Kyrie once again bit her lower lip until it bled. Why did it have to involve sex? Vivian was right in that with what Kyrie said sex wasn't needed for any of that but... But it felt like without the sex, without the intimacy it would somehow be... Lesser. Maybe it was because when she was being pleasured it made her more receptive to new ideas, or something? Kyrie didn't really know for sure, but she also knew that she probably shouldn't voice that thought to Vivian.
As a result silence reigned supreme in the room, aside from the sounds of their continued crying. Vivian was soon covering her eyes with one hand though, her shoulders shaking something fierce as she spoke again.
"I wish you had told me earlier, then at least I would've known just what kind of friend you are."
There was a sullen bitterness to these words and they stabbed like swords into Kyrie's heart: they were the exact things that Dessi had warned about at the beginning of all this. The longer she waited, the worse it would be when the information did come out. Still, if she had told Vivian when all of this first started, Kyrie just couldn't see how that would've been strictly better. It hurt to be called a bad friend though, especially because she had tried so hard to be a good one.
"How could I? How could I possibly tell you that I'd had sex with the man you love? If I had told you about what happened you never would've spoken to me again. But Vivian, you... You're the best friend I've ever had and I couldn't bear the thought of having you so distant. I thought... I thought that by hiding it from you we'd be able to remain friends..."
Kyrie's hand had moved away from her mouth now, and her eyes were open, almost imploring Vivian to understand, to understand and forgive her. And as Vivian looked at Kyrie's rather desperate eyes, she couldn't help looking away from her because ultimately... Kyrie was probably right. If she had told Vivian sooner there was no way their relationship would have survived. Kyrie had sex with Renard before the attack on Mae, and even she could see that most of her growing had happened after all that. Instead of combating that part of Kyrie's words, she combated the only thing that she could.
"But if I mattered so much to you then why would you do it in the first place?!"
"I... I couldn't refuse him."
As Kyrie thought back to the garden, that was really the only way that she could describe it. Yet, since Vivian didn't have any of the context for it, it came as so much more of a crushing blow than she had really intended. Vivian brought her hands up to her eyes again as she sunk into more crying, and Kyrie wondered if maybe she should try and explain to her what had happened, why she hadn't refused. At least then it would make it clear to Vivian that she hadn't been particularly in love with Renard.
… How would she even start with telling her about any of that?
A thought occurred to her then, and while Vivian had her face covered by her hands as she cried, Kyrie dug under her mattress to pull out one of her earlier notebooks. She was so desperate to try and reconcile with Vivian that at the first thought of her notebook she had set out to grab it before she could start second guessing herself. Placing the nightgown Vivian made her onto the bed next to her with great care, Kyrie got up and tentatively approached Vivian.
Stopping just in front of her, Vivian recoiled a little, telling Kyrie that she was aware that she was there despite the fact that she was covering her face.
"C-can I show you something?"
Vivian peered up at Kyrie then, trying to fix her with a glare but finding that her heart wasn't really in it, especially seeing that Kyrie still wasn't even done crying. Dropping her hands down to her lap in defeat with a sigh, she scooted to the side a little. Kyrie took this as an invitation, a rather reluctant one, but still an invitation nonetheless, and sat down next to her friend. Or at least... She desperately hoped still her friend.
Flipping through the pages of her notebook, Kyrie finally found the drawing she was looking for and put the book into her own lap, tilting it towards Vivian so that she could see. Despite the fact that she was so upset with Kyrie, Vivian couldn't seem to help her eyes being drawn towards the pages: she had to admit she was curious what Kyrie deemed appropriate to show her right now.
What she saw on the two pages made her eyes open a bit wider: these were pictures of Renard, but they weren't just pictures of him going about his daily life, no, these were pictures where the expressions on his face were ones that Vivian had never seen before. Vivian remained transfixed as Kyrie moved her through pictures of Renard tearing up the garden, smoking peacefully among the remains, or staring up at the stars with an unreadable expression on his face. As Kyrie went through the drawings, she began to speak to give Vivian context for them now that she had the other woman's attention.
"I used to do my drawing at night out in the garden, and one of those times I heard footsteps in the distance. I was worried that it might be something the lady needed to know about so I crept over towards it to see what it was. When I reached where the footsteps had stopped I was shocked to find Renard tearing up the land with a frenzy that I'd never seen on his face before. It was... fascinating... intriguing... and I'm ashamed to admit that I wasn't satisfied with seeing it just once. For so long I thought Renard was only what he showed to all of us, so when I found this other side of him I just... I had to draw it."
Vivian moved her hands to take hold of the notebook, and after a moment's hesitation Kyrie gently set it into her lap. There were other drawings in there that she might not like to see, but she wanted to bare her heart to her fellow slave. It may be uncomfortable, but if Vivian was going to forgive her and be her friend again then this discomfort was a small price to pay.
"It was only a matter of time before he found out that I was secretly watching him, and when he did he was so angry. He forced me to face exactly what it was that I was doing, and I just... I couldn't deny him. The fact of the matter was that I had intruded greatly on his privacy, and I... I didn't feel like I had a right to refuse him anything... After that it was just... He knew one of my worst secrets but he didn't want me to hide it, he wanted me to embrace it, and so ultimately what started reluctantly became... More mutual."
As Vivian slowly flipped through the drawings of Renard, she just couldn't think of what it was that she wanted to say. A part of her was happy to actually see these and touched that Kyrie would share them: they were aspects of Renard that she'd suspected existed but that she'd never been able to witness with her own eyes. It was nice to know that her guesses had been accurate, and surprising to see a little more than she'd thought; she hadn't even known that he smoked after all, he must have some easy way to get rid of the smell from his person when he was done out in the garden.
Yet at the same time, a part of her was immensely jealous; jealous of the fact that Kyrie had been the one to see these aspects of him and not her. Shaking a little, both from her tears and her own bitterness, she couldn't stop her next words from slipping through.
"You've seen things that I haven't..."
Before Vivian could stew and get more upset about it, Kyrie was quick to jump in with something herself.
"But so have you, and what you've seen means so much more than what I've seen!"
There was confusion read on Vivian's features now, but that was certainly better than her getting even more upset. Hoping to be able to get through to her before Vivian lashed out again, Kyrie quickly continued on.
"In the pictures that I drew for you Renard was showing you such tenderness, Vivian. Openly, without trying to hide it. The only reason I've witnessed what I have is because he didn't know I was there; he still doesn't willingly show me the more vulnerable aspects of his personality. You though, you're the one that he'd feel comfortable enough with to let his composure slip. Even though you haven't seen these expressions in person yet, I have no doubt that if you continue to strengthen your relationship with him like you've been doing then you'll see all of that and more. I really can't hold a candle to you in that regard."
"... He's really never shown that tenderness to you?"
Kyrie promptly shook her head, and the next words that came out of Vivian's mouth quite frankly dumbfounded Kyrie.
"Show me."
"W-What?"
"I'm sure you have pictures of yourself and Renard in here. Renard got the idea of having us drawn during sex from somewhere and I'm convinced now that it was from his interactions with you. So show me: show me that the tenderness he gives to me is only for me."
Vivian thrust the book back at Kyrie so that she could find these pictures, and Kyrie looked nervously between the book and Vivian. The expression on Vivian's face was a determined one, but Kyrie could see how her body was shaking just slightly. It was clear that she didn't want to do this, but it was still something that she felt she had to do. On one hand, Kyrie felt embarrassed to be admitting and showing such things to Vivian, but on the other, Kyrie knew for a fact that Renard didn't show the vulnerabilities that he showed to Vivian with herself. Kyrie hadn't omitted them or anything, they just hadn't been there, and surely once she saw that Vivian's anger towards her would lessen, wouldn't it?
Hesitating for only a brief moment more, Kyrie got up again and rifled around for another book. There was no point in denying Vivian's accusation that Renard had gotten the idea of drawing them from already doing it before with Kyrie; all that would do was insult Vivian's intelligence.
It wasn't long at all before Kyrie was sitting back down on the bed, and Vivian's eyes were fixed on the book in Kyrie's lap with a look of utter dread. She didn't want to look at it, she didn't want to see what was confined within these pages, yet at the same time, she couldn't just walk away either. It was almost as if she was drawn to the book now, needing to open it for some kind of release even if that release would kill her in the end.
Kyrie didn't quite open it yet, instead turning to look at Vivian with a bit of concern.
"Are you sure you want to see these...?"
No she wasn't. She wasn't sure at all. Yet, after taking a shaky breath Vivian said a single word.
"Yes."
With a deep breath of her own, Kyrie flipped through the pages of the book until she found the drawings she was looking for. They were the very first ones she'd really drawn of herself: the ones where Renard had fucked her in front of a mirror. Silently moving the book over to Vivian's lap so that she could browse, Kyrie kept her eyes firmly on her own hands which were clenched in her lap. It was embarrassing sharing these drawings with Vivian, but surely after seeing them Vivian would understand just how different her own relationship with Renard was. She just had to... Otherwise this whole evening would've been for naught.
The first drawing really set the scene for what was to come: it was a drawing of Renard standing behind Kyrie, forcing her to look straight on into a mirror. His face was full of that seductive charm, while Kyrie's face... Kyrie's was a mixture between fear and arousal. Nothing had even really started yet and Vivian already felt sick. To think that soon there would be so much more going on between the two of them... Her mind so strongly didn't want to accept that fact. Still, here was tangible evidence of what Kyrie was trying to say and she knew she had to actually look at it. She would never forgive herself if she just let this go.
As Vivian slowly pursed through the pages, even though she hated seeing Renard with another woman, she was also a bit shocked by the development seen there. Kyrie had started out her nervous and shy self, but when Vivian flipped further into the night, she really came out of her shell. With each picture, from Kyrie touching herself at Renard's behest to Renard himself thrusting into her, Kyrie opened up more and more. She lost herself further into the pleasure as they went, until she hardly even looked like Kyrie anymore. Renard coaxed her into embracing her own desires, and Vivian now had an idea of what Renard meant when he said that Kyrie had a suppressed curiosity that he couldn't help wanting to cultivate.
There was at least one upside to looking at drawings of Renard having sex with her best friend though: Renard was definitely more open with her than he was with Kyrie. The only time his composure came even close to breaking in these pictures was when the two of them had orgasmed together, but even then it was a completely different expression from what he had when he'd released into Vivian. It felt... Honestly it felt more like Kyrie was one of Renard's garden projects rather than his lover. Renard was invested in her, that much was true, but he was also putting in effort to effectively try and sculpt her. It was more of a mentor student relationship than anything else, and that really did help Vivian feel better in the sense that Kyrie wasn't trying to steal Renard away from her.
Deep down Vivian already knew that though...
After all, how many times had Kyrie helped her out with her own relationship? Kyrie still wanted Vivian's relationship with Renard to be alive and well; there was absolutely no jealousy in the younger girl's heart. Vivian had no doubt that if there was ever a chance that the two of them wanted Renard's attention at the same time, Kyrie would gladly give her time up to Vivian. There really... There really was no need to be concerned about Kyrie sleeping with Renard. Vivian's nature made it hard for her to truly embrace sharing Renard with Kyrie, but she did feel better about it now, like she would actually be able to move on.
The tears on Vivian's face had dried as she looked through the pictures, partly because she'd been caught up in examining them and partly because looking at them actually was making her feel better. To be honest she hadn't been expecting that, she'd been expecting them to make her feel so much worse, like she wouldn't even be able to look at Kyrie again without thinking about how Renard had touched her. When she looked at Kyrie and Renard's relationship through these pictures though, it just felt so radically different from when she herself was with Renard that it was impossible to really think of them in the same context. Vivian knew they had happened, and that they had happened even in one of the guest rooms, but the fact that she would never see it outside of a drawing helped.
Having seen way more than she ever wanted to see of Renard's relationships with other women, Vivian closed the book. The sound of this caused Kyrie to jump a little and look over towards Vivian. Kyrie's tears had also been drying, just because she'd been zoning out as she sat, trying to get herself to not feel instead of fret. When she looked at Vivian though, her eyes began to water with unshed tears: the anticipation of hearing what Vivian had to say now that she was done was just too much. All of their future interactions hinged on what Vivian was going to say next, and Kyrie desperately hoped that her efforts had been enough.
"You really... You really aren't trying to come between us, are you?"
To hear Vivian speak with such a mild tone to her, it sent the tears spilling overboard before Kyrie quickly responded with a desperate eagerness that softened Vivian's expression towards her all the more.
"Of course not! I would never, ever want to ruin your relationship with him, Vivian! I love how happy he makes you: why would I want to deprive you of that happiness?"
Vivian's heart just about broke with emotion from this response from Kyrie, and she couldn't resist reaching out to wrap her friend in a tight embrace.
"Good."
Vivian's voice cracked from the love that she felt for her friend, and she clenched her eyes shut while her arms hugged Kyrie a little tighter. Kyrie let out a gasping sob to have Vivian hugging her again, and she clung to her friend, almost disbelieving that Vivian was showing any positive feelings towards her at all.
"I'm so sorry I hurt you Vivian, but you're my best friend! I hope... I hope that I'm still yours, but at the very least I'm so happy that you haven't just cast me aside for doing this to you."
The words were just slipping out of Kyrie rather choppily since they were said between relieved sobs, and while Vivian didn't really say anything in return at first, she did tighten her grip a little, a last round of tears slipping down her own face as well.
"You are still my best friend, Kyrie."
Vivian's voice was soft as she said this, and the wave of good feeling that washed over Kyrie prompted her to nuzzle close against her friend. The two women stayed together like this for a few minutes, just deriving comfort from being in the other's arms; after crying and being depressed about it for so long, it felt like the sun was finally beginning to shine again for both of them after this evening.
Vivian was the first to start regaining her composure, because when she opened her eyes and saw Kyrie's lingerie laying on the bed across from them, it seemed like such a shame for it to remain forgotten over there.
… What was she hesitating for anyway? If she forgave Kyrie, which she found that she really did, there was no reason to keep being sullen and upset at her. Pulling away from Kyrie so that her hands were on Kyrie's shoulders and she was looking her right in the eye, she spoke once again.
"Kyrie... What you and Renard did hurt, it hurt a lot but... But... I won't... I won't try and stop you from being with Renard, I just don't ever want to hear anything about it. I don't want whatever you do with him to interfere with my time with him at all."
Eager to do anything she could to not have her and Vivian go through this pain again, Kyrie nodded her understanding, placing her hands on Vivian's shoulders as well.
"It won't, I can promise you that, Vivian. And... And thank you, for still being my friend even after... After all this."
Kyrie gave her friend a smile that trembled with happy tears, and when Vivian returned it it almost set both of them off into crying again. Taking a deep breath to keep the tears from falling, Vivian continued on.
"And one other thing. The lingerie I made you is only to be used for you and Isaac. I made it with you two in mind, Renard should never be the one seeing it!"
Kyrie had almost completely forgotten about the lingerie, and at Vivian's words she turned to look over at it on the bed again.
"I never would've even thought to try it on for Renard... I feel like... Well like these kind of clothes are a gift for who you're wearing them for..."
Giving Kyrie a sudden and tight hug, Vivian was just so happy to hear that Kyrie was of a like mind on the matter. All of Kyrie's secrets had been shared with her now so there was no reason for Vivian to think that Kyrie was lying when she said she only intended to wear it for Isaac. Now that she thought about it though, she didn't think that Kyrie had ever actually lied to her. She hadn't told Vivian about the affair with Renard, but that was just because the topic had never come up. It was comforting to know that Kyrie would only wear this for Isaac, and she knew that if Kyrie said it then she would try to stick to it as best as she could.
"Good, we're on the same page then."
There was a slight pause as Vivian continued to look at the lingerie on the other bed, and soon she was speaking up again.
"Now, we really should see if it fits you, don't you think?"
"Fit me? What--"
This turn towards the lingerie just baffled Kyrie as Vivian interrupted her to pull her up. Her mind was still reeling about how close she'd come to losing a friend, but here Vivian was already trying to move on to other things. Could she... Could Kyrie really believe that everything was going to be ok between her and Vivian?
Kyrie was still a daze even as Vivian took the notebook out of Kyrie's arms, dropped it on her bed, and then replaced it with the nightgown that she'd made.
"Come on, let's go up to one of the guest rooms to try it on, we don't need Dessi walking in halfway through."
Vivian practically dragged Kyrie out of the room, and Vivian just couldn't really explain this giddiness that she felt now. She'd confirmed that her friend had, without a doubt, slept with Renard, yet a friend Kyrie still was. It felt... If felt amazing to know that even though Kyrie had sex with Renard, her own position with Renard was strong enough for that not to matter. She still would greatly prefer it if Kyrie hadn't touched him at all, but Kyrie had reassured her that there would be no interference in her relationship. It'd certainly been true all these months already, why should she suddenly believe that now it would make her relationship with Renard deteriorate? That was just silly.
Kyrie even felt the same way about lingerie that she did! She wouldn't have to worry about whether the thing she'd made to enhance pleasure in bed would be used on Renard in her absence. There really just... Wasn't much of a reason to be upset and when she looked back at how miserable she'd been these past few days, she couldn't help but think it to be almost... Pointless,. It didn't serve any purpose because all of the concerns running through her brain turned out not to be concerns at all.
After actually talking to Kyrie, everything felt like it was going to be ok.
As Vivian pulled Kyrie into one of the guest rooms, she really had to resist the urge to cry again with how normal all of this felt. She was so grateful that she hadn't lost Vivian, and while things might be a little touchy around Vivian for a bit, that didn't change the fact that they were going to be alright.
Standing Kyrie in front of the mirror, Vivian then closed the door behind them, plunging them into utter darkness.
"W-What?! Vivian--"
"You can get dressed in the dark, Kyrie. The nightgown isn't complicated, it's really just a pair of panties and a dress. This way you won't have to be embarrassed about stripping, and you'll get to be surprised by your nightgown as well."
Kyrie didn't make any more protests to Vivian's actions, so Vivian simply made her way over to the bed and plopped down onto it as she listened to the rustle of fabric. Slowly closing her eyes, she let out a soft sigh as the giddiness slowly began to fade. It wasn't fading into despair though, she was simply exhausted from all the crying that she'd done. It felt good to be at the end of that dark tunnel, and she would be perfectly content to just fall asleep here now in Kyrie's presence. She almost did too, except that Kyrie's voice announcing that she was done dressing startled her out of it.
With this prompter, Vivian fumbled around a little before lighting up the candle at the bedside. With this accomplished, she moved over to illuminate Kyrie, and the moment the light hit Kyrie enough for her to see what she was wearing, she let out a soft gasp. She couldn't help bringing her arms up as if to cover her body while a bright blush rose to her cheeks. It wasn't quite as becoming as it could be since Kyrie's cheeks were still blotchy with tears, but Vivian had to admit that this little ensemble looked just as cute on Kyrie as she imagined it would.
"V-Vivian! I can't wear this!"
What Kyrie was wearing wasn't nearly quite so scandalous as she was making it sound. All of the fabric was aqua colored, and it did indeed look like a short little dress just like Vivian promised. The panties were made with a lacy material, and the part of them that went around Kyrie's hips were little more than thin straps. The actual lace bit was partially see through, allowing bits of Kyrie's skin to be seen through the patterns of the lace. Usually panties were invisible under a dress, but due to the nature of the fabric that wasn't the case with this cute little ensemble. The top of Kyrie's nightgown, which was to say the area encompassing everything above just under her breasts, was made of the same intricate lacy material that the underwear was made of, with some more thin straps that went over her shoulders. There was a lace band that wrapped around her body just under her breasts, and down from there was a flowy sheer material that left nothing to the imagination at all. The lace covered things a little, but the rest of the dress did away with the facade of clothing that actually kept you decent. The sheer fabric dress went down to about the middle of her thighs, but it had a wavy hem, making the length of it rather variable from just above the middle of her thighs down to about 3/4ths of the way down to her knees.
It was just so strange to see herself in anything aside from that shapeless sack that they wore. The fact that this dress hugged all of her curves absolutely perfectly and made her actually look cute easily brought a blush up to her features.
"Oh, Kyrie. Just look at yourself! You can't honestly tell me that you don't like the way it looks?"
Chancing another glance into the mirror, Kyrie really couldn't say that she didn't like the way it looked. She felt a little like she was looking in the mirror when Isaac had showed her just how beautiful she was; wearing this felt a lot like having him say those words to her, and it both embarrassed and immensely flattered her. And honestly... A part of her was excited to wear this in front of Isaac: if he thought she was beautiful in their usual nightgown then seeing her in something like this, something that she herself actually thought was cute, was going to completely blow his mind. There was no way that he would know this was coming, and if Renard and Vivian were anything to go by then the expression on Isaac's face would be priceless. Kyrie loved to see him happy, and to have him be happy specifically because of something that she did... That was a feeling truly hard to surpass.
Vivian had really outdone herself here: her friend had made her look truly beautiful.
"It... It is very pretty..."
The two women smiled at each other through the mirror, but soon Kyrie's own smile began to fade. At the sight of this, Vivian's features softened into concern as she gently placed a hand on Kyrie's shoulder.
"What's wrong?"
What was wrong was that now that the high of still having Vivian as a friend had begun to fade, Kyrie began to think about what that would mean going forward. How could she be thinking about having a good time with Isaac when... Well... When she knew that she would have to tell him what she did with Renard? Did she even deserve the happiness that this garment would help encourage? Should she really be building Isaac up further even when she knew she had to break it down soon?
"Are you... Are you glad that Renard told you what we did?"
Kyrie's voice was quiet as she asked this, and now Vivian knew exactly what was wrong with Kyrie. She was thinking about how Isaac would react to what she'd done, and whether she really would have to tell him about it.
At first Vivian was silent from this question, mostly because she was really thinking about that answer. Was she glad about it...? It had hurt her, and made her feel miserable for a good three days, but she also felt like her relationship with Renard could only get stronger now, especially because in confronting Kyrie about this she got to learn more about Renard that she hadn't known before. And her relationship with Kyrie... It felt like it was going to get stronger too, now that she knew her secrets as well.
"... Yes... I think I am glad that he told me. I won't deny I was upset that he did it, and I still am a bit upset, the feeling just doesn't go away so easily, but I feel like now I can finally make a better relationship with him, and with you, too, Kyrie."
This answer made Kyrie more depressed, and Vivian knew exactly why.
"I can't keep hiding this from Isaac..."
This was barely mumbled on Kyrie's part, and even though Vivian only heard part of it, she knew what Kyrie had said. A part of her felt like this was exactly what Kyrie deserved and that she never should've done this in the first place, but a bigger part of her felt sad for Kyrie. Just as Kyrie didn't want to do anything to ruin Vivian's happiness, Vivian didn't want to see Kyrie's happiness get ruined either. In an effort to try and comfort her friend, Vivian gently pushed Kyrie's chin up so that she was looking in the mirror, and looked her straight in the eye as she spoke.
"I'm sure the right time to tell him will present itself sooner or later, but tonight is not that time. Don't think about it anymore, Kyrie; you're wearing something that I'm sure Isaac will truly love, so just go out there and enjoy yourself. No need to stop making happy memories even if there is an impending bad, one, right?"
To have her friend comfort her like this even after she'd hurt her so badly... Kyrie blinked furiously so that the tears wouldn't fall, and turned to wrap her arms around Vivian, nuzzling her face into her friend's shoulder.
"Thank you, Vivian... For everything..."
Wrapping the arm not holding the candle around Kyrie, Vivian squeezed her tight for a moment and squished her own face against Kyrie's head.
"That's just what friends do, isn't it?"
Once again the two of them stayed in their hug, though this time both were struggling not to cry. Once again it was Vivian who ended up pulling away from the hug first, and she straightened Kyrie up before making a show of brushing off any dust or lint that had made its way onto her new nightgown.
"Alright Kyrie, it's time to go out there and give Isaac the time of his life, and absolutely no frowning you hear me?!"
Kyrie gave her friend a smile, though she had to bite at her lip a little to keep from crying as she nodded, and Vivian promptly picked up her friend's clothes and shoved them into her arms.
"Good. And you have fun too, ok?"
Once again Kyrie nodded, and Vivian ushered her out the doorway after making sure the halls were clear. Giving Vivian one last look before flashing a truly relieved smile at her friend, Kyrie quietly disappeared into the guest room that she knew Isaac would be in. Only once the door had closed behind Kyrie did Vivian return back into the room she'd come out of.
Flopping down onto the bed after blowing out the candle and putting it back, she closed her tired eyes with a heavy sigh. She didn't feel like going out to try and find Renard tonight. He could find her if he wanted, but she was certainly not going out looking. It felt like it had taken every ounce of her strength to reconcile with Kyrie, and now that she had she just wanted to close her eyes and pass out.
So that's exactly what she did.